The formula for these trips has remained the same across all four.  A max of 10 classic cars, each over 30 years old.  The cars should be able to cruise at 120km/h and could be from any marque, although so far they have all been classic Mercedes-Benz.   We avoid motorways at all costs and focus on the back roads and out of the way towns.  We attempt to drive only on sealed roads.

This year was a little different.   Instead of having a centrepiece event like the first three, it was more of a roadtrip through northern NSW and outback Queensland.  We did it in winter as some of these areas are flooded or extremely hot in summer.  Longreach was the furthest point of our trip, but not the core of the trip like the Adelaide Rally, MBCV Concours or the Euroa show.

As with the last three, our trip was a big success.  We all had a great time and all the cars and drivers returned home without incident.

Our Route

A full description of our route is available here.   We started in Maitland, avoiding the Sydney traffic on day one.   The goal of the way up to Queensland was to take some of the great roads that cross The Great Dividing Range.   This included the Oxley Highway, Waterfall Way, The Gwydir Highway, Bruxner Highway and Mt Nebo.   Each were different ranging from tight twisting corners to sweeping bends.   Most of them had great views and interesting places to stop.

On the way up we would also take in the National Transport Museum at Inverell.

Once we passed Brisbane, we were into the outback portion of our trip.   In some areas it was hundreds of km between towns and service stations.   There were 53.5 meter road trains to pass and different scenery as we pushed further inland.

We stopped at Longreach to check out the Qantas founders museum, before turning back the inland route.   Some of these roads were even more deserted.   As we returned, we passed well known towns such as Lightening Ridge, Coonable, Coonabarabran and also went through the Warrumbungle National Park.    We finished our adventure driving through Bylong Valley and the excellent Putty Road.   Our total distance over eight days was 4,950km.

The Cars

A full description of each of the cars and how they went is available here.  They were all Classic Mercedes ranging from 1978 to 1993.  All but one was on historic rego.  All the cars were 126, 123 or 124 models.

There were seven cars that completed the trip, with an additional car, a 1989 420SEL, making a cameo appearance.  Each of them completed the journey on its own four wheels.   We had a few minor issues along the way, but nothing that couldn’t be solved at the side of the road, or lived with for the journey.

Over the seven cars, three had participated in previous road trips and the rest were making their debuts.   The Lapis Blue 380SEC has done all four trips and has travelled 15,900km across them.

On this trip we pushed the cars pretty hard – on the way up through the twisty sections and on the way back passing road trains.   They all performed brilliantly.

The Drive

We all made our way separately to Maitland on the Friday afternoon and evening.  In keeping with the spirit of the trip, I avoided the motorway and took the back roads into town.   A few of us met up for dinner in Maitland, and then got an early night ready to roll out the next morning.

The next morning, we left very early as we had to drive further than expected due to a landslide on Thunderbolts Way.   Leaving early allowed us to witness a really nice sunrise as we left Maitland.    Highlights of the day were the Oxley highway which had some really tight corners and twisty sections, and Waterfall way which was more cruisy but also good.    We stopped at Ebor falls to admire the waterfall and then took the back roads into Grafton.   A more detailed overview of Day 1 can be found here.

The next morning we left at our more usual time at 6:30AM and headed to the Gwydir highway for another great road over the great dividing range.   The bends were not as tight on the Gwydir highway, making it a faster road.   After taking the Gwydir highway, we headed to Inverell to visit the National Transport Museum.   Our afternoon drive kept us going north on the New England Highway and then the Bruxner highway which was quite good.   We finished in Boonah, Queensland.   A more detailed overview of Day 2 can be found here.

Day three we started with a very foggy day and skirted Brisbane, before taking Mt Nebo road over the range again.   After that we cruised past Lake Wivenhoe and stopped at Cormorant Bay, which was a lovely spot.   We continued north until our lunch in Nanango, where our friend from Brisbane had to return home.  After Lunch we had some great road that were really deserted and we hardly saw a town for 300km.   We finished the day in Monto.   A more detailed overview of Day 3 can be found here.

Next day we headed west, into outback Queensland.  We covered the longest distance today, but the roads were mostly straight and flat so speeds were higher than the twisty roads of the last three days.  Our breakfast spot was in Moura, and then we headed through some of the outback towns of Emerald and Rolleston.   We stopped at a couple of lookouts, the one at Virgin Rock was the better of the two.   In the afternoon we headed to Barcaldine.   This was mostly a straight flat run, with plenty of road trains to pass.   A more detailed overview of day 4 can be found here.

For day five, we headed into Longreach.  We checked out the town and attended the Qantas Founders Museum.   After that we drove the short distance to Ilfracombe to see the Machinery museum and have lunch.   After lunch we started to head south, stopping at Blackall and then to our final destination for the day, Tambo.  As with the day before, the roads were mostly open, with just the odd road train to pass.    A more detailed overview of day 5 can be found here.

Day 6 was a short day.  We were in a very isolated part of Queensland and there were few towns.   We stopped in Morven for breakfast and a refuel, before heading to our final destination in St George.  While we covered over 500km, we passed few towns and the roads were pretty empty other than the road trains and the occasional land cruiser.  A more detailed overview of day 6 can be found here.

On our penultimate day, we crossed the border back into NSW.   We stopped at the towns of Dirrenbandi, Lightening Ridge and Walgett, before having lunch in Coonamble.   After lunch we headed over to the Warrumbungle National Park.   The road through the national park was pretty good, as was the view from Whitegum lookout.   After Whitegum lookout we headed to the Observatory at Siding Springs, which had good views, and also the virtual solar system tour.   Our final evening stop was Coonabarabran, which seemed like a vibrant town, where we had a succulent Chinese Meal.  A more detailed overview of day 7 can be found here.

The final day took us southwards from Coonabarabran.  We saw the rest of the virtual solar system, before taking Bylong Valley road to our lunch destination at Jerry’s plains.   After witnessing a Police operation, we stopped for lunch and were joined by a couple of the guys from last year’s drive who couldn’t make it.  A few of our group had to leave early, and missed a great final drive through the Putty road into Windsor.  A more detailed overview of day 8 can be found here.

By the time we returned, we had passed 4,950km for the trip.  Our group of high mileage Classic Mercedes had taken us on a grand adventure.

The post Longreach Trip – Summary appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

We we drove south, we were greeted with a very impressive full moon.   The countryside was pretty similar to yesterday.  Very flat, with medium sized trees and some bush areas.   Some parts had no undergrowth at all, just medium sized trees.  I don’t know if this was because of flooding or fire or some other reason.

The bakery at Dirrenbandi had some quite interesting Russian pastries and sweets for sale.   After breakfast, we crossed the border and continued on towards Lightening Ridge.  Of course being in NSW we were greeted with a speed camera warning sign and worse roads.   The scenery was much the same, the vegetation mostly bushes and small trees.

We stopped for about an hour at Lightening Ridge to refuel and and look around.   I was a bit surprised that given the driving was quite easy, my car had the worst fuel economy of the trip at 16l/100km.   Lightening ridge was full of Opal stores, and we went into a couple to look around.  There were also mine tours, but you needed more time to do those.   Having heard it was a really interesting, place, it was a bit disappointing.

After we left Lightening ridge, we drove another hour or so to Walgett.   We did a brief stop here to take a few photos in front of a water tower mural.   After Walgett, the vegetation started to get thicker and the farms were more about crops than cattle.   During the drive I passed 4,000km for the trip, and over 20,000km since purchasing the 560SEL   We continued on to our lunch stop at Coonamble.

Continuing the trend from breakfast, our lunch cafe had some quite interesting desserts for sale, various bars and brownies plus Lebanese style desserts.  Walking around Coonable, it was clear that the town had gone through some kind of boom from 1928-1930 as nearly all the buildings in the main street harked from that era.   However, many of them were either for lease or boarded up.  It felt like a town that had fallen on hard times.   I parked in front of a magnificent art deco cafe location, complete with art deco mirrors, windows, bar and booths for customers.   It was for lease, as were so many of the stores.

After lunch, we headed out of the town to wars Warrumbungle National Park.  As we headed out of town it became apparent that I had missed a 20km section of unsealed road.   We were lucky it was pretty smooth and the weather was good.

As we got closer to Warrumbungle national park, we could see the the totally flat country give way to to what looked like a mountainous region.   Sticking up from the top of it and very apparent was the siding springs telescope.

Once we finished the unsealed section, the road up through Warrumbungle national park was quite good.   We stopped at Whitegum lookout, where there were amazing views of the scenery below.  I didn’t know that Warrumbungle national park is an old volcanic formation from millions of years ago.  Its quite apparent when you are there to see it.

After admiring the view, we drove the short distance to Siding springs telescope to see the Telescope up close.  We didn’t do the whole tour, but the views from this area were quite good too.   In addition, they had a ‘virtual solar system’ there there is a too scale map of the solar system based on distances.   The Sun is at the telescope parking lot.   Mercury is just outside the carpet.  Venus is halfway down the hill to the main road, a couple of kilometers away.   Earth is almost at the main road, and Mars is a little way down it.   Then it is about 20km before you hit the to scale model of Jupiter.   We’ll see the rest of the planets tomorrow.

We refueled and checked into our hotel.  Yet again, I had 16l/100km from my 560SEL.  I find it quite odd as this has been an easy day of driving.   In the day, we have covered 538km.

After a short break we went for our final dinner of the trip.  Walking along in the town, it was an amazing contrast between Coonamble and Coonabarabran.  Sadly Coonamble seemed like it was dying where Coonabarabran was a busy and vibrant town.   The populations are pretty similar.   I guess Coonabarabran has the activity for the telescope as well as tourism for Warrumbungle national park to give the local economy a boost.

Our final dinner was a succulent Chinese meal at a local restaurant.  It has superb over the top decor that reminded me of restaurants in the 80s.   Apparently it had been imported from Hong Kong.   In any case the food was excellent, and it reminded me of the meal we ate in Leeton two years ago on the Concours Run.

The post Longreach Trip – Day 7 – Inland Northern NSW and Warrumbungle NP appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

I’ve never been that far from the coast in Queensland, so this trip was an opportunity to see a totally different part of the country in our classic cars.   The last three events have been built around an event or car show.  This year it is more about the drive and the places we will see along the way.  It is also a longer trip than we have done before, at 8 days.

Ultimately, the furthest point from home will be Longreach, Queensland.   As with last year, all the cars will be classic Mercedes.  This is not a requirement, cars just have to be 30 years or older and able to cruise at motorway speeds.   On the trip we will have four 126s (2x 380SEC, 560SEC, 560SEL), two 123s (2x 280CE) and a 124 (320CE) with a 126 420SEL making a cameo appearance.

The idea is that we will mostly hug the great dividing range on the way up, before taking the more inland route back home.  The most direct route to Longreach and back only covers 3,367km.

Day 0

We learned on the first of these trips that it is a bad idea trying to get out of Sydney on Day 1.  Too much time in heavy traffic.   Therefore, everyone is going to make their own way to Maitland, where we will start the journey proper.

Those wanting to keep to the spirit of avoiding motorways, can take the old Pacific Highway.   While the exact distance will be different for everyone, I will be covering around 185km.

Day 1

Originally on the first day, we were to start in Maitland, and take The Bucketts way up towards Gloucester, before turning onto Thunderbolts way.    Thunderbolts way is a good drive and I tested quite a bit of this route on my way to Queensland earlier this year.  However, in late May, major floods in the area destroyed about 40km of Thunderbolts way.  It is still not repaired.

There are not really other sealed roads through this area.   Therefore, we had to deviate back to the A1 on the coast, until we hit the Oxley Highway (B56), and go inland.   The Oxley highway is apparently a great driving road, and I considered it when originally designing the route.   I didn’t use it for time and distance constraints.   The destruction of part of the Thunderbolts way forced my hand.

The original plan was to take all of Waterfall way (B78) back towards the coast.   Instead, we are now going to about half of Waterfall Way – as far as Dorrigo.   We’ll then take Armidale road up towards our destination in Grafton.   Our total distance will be 727km, 120 more than planned.

The new route should be just as good, but we’ll need to start early and we’ll finish later than I would prefer.

Day 2

On day 2, we’ll cover 621km.  We’ll start in Grafton, and take The Gwydir Highway inland towards Inverell.   This is also apparently a great driving road.   At Inverell, we’ll go and see the National Transport Museum.   This looks to be a great automotive museum.

From Inverell, we’ll head north via the back roads and finish our day in Boonah, about an hour out of Brisbane.  We will have covered 621km.

Day 3

On day three, we’ll start by skirting Brisbane, before taking the scenic Mt Nebo road west, and drive past Lake Wivenhoe.   We’ll travel through Esk, before heading northwards.  We’ll head through Queensland towns such as Yarraman, Nanango and Durong before finally arriving at our destination in Monto.  Day three covers 611km.

Day 4

Day four takes us westwards.  We’ll move from the undulating countryside near the great dividing range into outback Queensland.   Our route takes us through towns like Biloela, Bauhina and others, before arriving in Emerald for lunch.

In the afternoon, we’ll head west until we hit Barcaldine, which is our stop for the night.   This will be our longest distance day at 758km, but the roads will be mostly flat and straight.

Day 5

Day five gets us into Longreach, the furthest point from home.   In Longreach, we’ll check out the Qantas founders museum, plus check out the town.   Qantas is one of the oldest airlines in the world and started here in 1920.  The name (Queensland and Northern Territorial Aerial Service) still harks back to this origin.

The museum has a number of exhibits from the early days, including famous aircraft such as the DC3 and Lockheed Super Constellation, right through the aircraft from the Jet age such as the short body 707-138 and the 747-238B.  I can still remember seeing Longreach painted on the side of the Boeing 747s that were in operation.

In the afternoon, we’ll leave Longreach and start heading south.  We’ll pass back through Barcaldine, before turning off through Blackall and then finishing up in Tambo. We’ll have covered 424km.

Day 6

Day six will be another shorter day of driving, only 507km.   This is primarily due to this part of Australia being quite sparsely populated, and having to line up places to stay.

We’ll start out in Tambo, before driving south through Morven and Mitchell.   Our destination is St George.   We’ll have most of the afternoon free to explore the town.

Day 7

On day seven, we’ll continue to head south.  We’ll have breakfast in Dirranbandi, before heading south to Lightening Ridge, an opal mining town.   We’ll stop for about an hour in Lightening Ridge.

After that we’ll continue south through Walgett and stop for Lunch in Coonamble.   In the afternoon, we’ll head past Warrumbungle National Park, stopping at Whitegum lookout and Siding Spring Observatory.   The virtual solar system is located around Coonabarabran, the astronomy capital of Australia.   Day seven covers 542km.

Day 8

Our final day has us heading out of Coonabarabran, past the rest of the virtual solar system.   We’ll take Bylong Vally way towards Jerry’s plains, where we’ll stop for Lunch.   From there, we’ll do our final leg down the Putty Road, before splitting up at Windsor.   With the added distance, we should have covered close to 5,000km by the time we head home, and I’ll have covered 566km on the final day.

The post Planning a 4,800km road trip to outback Queensland appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The trip to Brisbane was fairly last minute.   There was a car I wanted to go and have a look at.  Most people would fly up, but I decided to drive.  I fly a lot for work and have come to really hate the flying experience.   Its something I would only want to do if paid to, or the distances make it a necessity.   Since the 240D was all fixed up with the new fuel tank and rebuilt brakes, it also felt like a good opportunity to experience the car on the open road.

Before I left on Saturday morning, I brimmed the tank and set off.   My destination was Warwick, QLD.   I planned to take the inland route.   I took the motorway until just past Newcastle, before turning off onto the Buckets Way.   The 240D did well on the motorway and was quite happy to cruise at motorway speeds.  There were a couple of hills where the speed dropped, but now all the algae is out of the tank, it was generally able to cruise up all but the steepest hills with traffic.

The Buckets Way is a scenic undulating road that was a nice break from the motorway.   From there, I continued onto Thunderbolts way, which was very pleasant to drive on.   The traffic was minimal and the 240D was able to handle the twisty sections very well.   For quite a while I was driving behind a modern SUV.   The 240D was able to go around corners faster and with more comfort, since it is not so top heavy.  It also has more comfortable suspension, you could really see the SUV bouncing around.   It was only on steep uphill sections where it would get away.  I was always able to catch up again.

After Thunderbolts Way, I took the New England Highway, which I also enjoyed.   There was one very steep section where the 240D struggled a little.   On hills, the redline in each gear becomes important.   On medium sized hills, it can only maintain speed in 3rd gear.  Redline for 3rd gear is 100km/h, so it can sit at around 90km/h.   On steep hills, redline for 2nd gear is 60km/h, so it can sit around 50km/h.   Going around Black mountain, there was a section where I had to maintain 50 for a while.   However, on the whole drive I probably lost perhaps 10 minutes at most – the 240D did better than I thought it would on the twisty and hilly roads.   This was all with the A/C on.   I passed far more cars than passed me.

Traffic got a bit heaver around Glen Innes, but overall this route was nice and peaceful and a great way to drive up to Brisbane, even during school holidays.   The weather was quite rainy, but the 240D handled it well.   I had put on new wipers before I left, and they cleaned the windscreen very well.  I ordered them for the car, but they were a few cm shorter than the ones I took off, so the overlap wasn’t quite as good as it should be.   Perhaps they sent me the wipers for the coupe.

By the time I reached Warwick, I had covered 787km and still had about a quarter of a tank showing.   I expected it was a bit less than that, as I have the normal W123 grounding issue in the instrument cluster that also causes the temperature gauge to read a bit high.   Something to fix.

I had driven all day in the W123 and I was comfortable and and didn’t feel tired when I arrived.   The next morning I filled up the car – using 70.53l and 8.96l/100km.   I think this is very good given I wasn’t trying to save fuel and I spent much of the day at full throttle.

I then drove into Brisbane to meet some friends at the Brisbane Car Museum and for lunch.  On the way I happened to pass the XXXX brewery.   Since one of the friends I was meeting had moved up to Brisbane, I had been joking about him needing to start drinking XXXX now he’s a Queenslander.  A photo outside the place was a must.

We met for lunch and then headed over to the museum, where we also randomly met another MBCQ member.   I’ve covered the museum separately here.   After the museum, we went and checked out each others cars in a local park.  We had two W126 (560SEL and 420SEL) and two W123 (230E and my 240D).    Given the trip was such late notice, it was great to catch up.

The next morning, after I checked out the car that was the main driver of the trip, I got on the road at about 11am.   Since I had to get back that day, I took the motorway.   It had been more than 10 years since I did this drive and it has changed a lot.   The last time was when I purchased my 1970 Citroen DS21 back in 2013.   These days most of the towns have been bypassed.   There is still a big section around Coffs Harbour and another big section south of Raymond Terrace that are surface streets, but the majority of it is divided highway.

It is far more stressful to drive than the inland route.  The speed limit is constantly changing down to 100km/h or even 90km/h for no apparent reason, other than to provide a place for aggressive revenue raising speed enforcement.   The traffic is much thicker, often with gormless SUVs that randomly slow down or speed up for reasons only known to themselves.

I refueled just before I reached the NSW border.  The prices seemed quite a bit cheaper in Queensland.  In my time driving around Brisbane, covered 287km at 8.71l/100km.  That was a combination of city traffic as well as the open road, with the A/C on max the whole time.

The rest of the trip back was fairly uneventful.   The 240D just cruised along at the freeway speed, happy to overtake the SUVs as we went.  I was impressed that the car could cruise at just under 90% of its top speed for hours at a time without issue.  Not many 40 year old cars could do that.   The W123 is a very comfortable place and I did the drive with two breaks for lunch and dinner.   The car is a little noisy at motorway speeds, but it is very happy.

I even noticed that when driving up the steep hill on the southern side of the Mooney Mooney bridge, I was able to cruise up in fourth gear with no problem.  When I first bought the car, it could not maintain these speeds.  I guess that is mostly due to the clogged fuel strainer, but a good long run like this can’t have hurt either.   On the trip I passed 190,000km on the car.

Once I passed Gosford, I started to wonder what my fuel situation was like.  It was still showing about a 3rd of a tank, which seemed too high.  I figured if my consumption was the same as the way up, I should be able to get home on one tank, but I was expecting it to read lower.  I put this down to the grounding issue that causes the temperature gauge to read high.  There are not really any petrol stations along the motorway in this section, so I kept going.  It was 11pm, so most of the local service stations were closed.

It turns out I should have paid more attention to this, and turned off to refuel.  I ran out of fuel less than 20km from my home and about 4km from a 24 hour petrol station.  Since I was on a main road (but not motorway) – the NRMA would not send out a patrol with 5 liters of fuel, I had to be towed off the main road before they were allowed to help.   That seemed odd to me, but it was less than an hour from running out of fuel to being on my way again.  The tow truck dropped me off at the 24 hour service station.

Many cars advertise a theoretical fuel tank size, and not all of it is accessible.  I was curious to see how many liters I would put in from empty.  Turns out it is all accessible, as I put in 80.56l.   Driving at motorway speeds used more diesel than the twisty roads, in this case 9.5l per 100km.   It wasn’t a busy night, so it was less than an hour from breakdown to being back on the road, including priming the fuel system.

I arrived back home at 11:30pm.   While I have other cars that are probably better road trip cars, the 240D did incredibly well.  I thoroughly enjoyed taking it on a road trip and would be happy to do so again.   There is an event for the 50 year anniversary of the W123 in Canberra in January 2025 that I plan to attend in the 240D.

On the trip I wondered if I would see many other classics on the road, particularly classic Mercedes-Benz.  However, I only saw one in Brisbane, besides the group I met up with.   It was a 420SEC.  Of all the cars to see, the 420SEC would not have been my guess due to its very low production numbers and that it was never sold new in Australia.   Yet there it was in daily use.

The post Road trip to Brisbane in my 1981 240D appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

We stayed in the pub in Bombala.  I generally only book places that have private bathrooms, so I must have missed that it didn’t.   Having said that he rooms were very nice and the food was great.  The bed was the most comfortable of the trip.

As we drove out of Bombala, the sun was rising over the Monaro region.   The sunrise illustrated the high country landscape and the farms along the route.   The road was great and the cars were running well.

Originally we planned to drive to Bredbo, but we decided to refuel in Cooma instead.   This worked out well, as while Bredbo has a pie shop, it does not seem to have a service station.  In Cooma, we filled up all the cars and had breakfast at McDonalds.

After all the troubles I had with my car the day before, it was going very well.  I was getting occasional noise from my rear left wheel when turning, but none of the previous issue.   The noise was also different.  The noise led me to believe that its probably not a wheel bearing issue.   I suspect part of the handbrake mechanism, perhaps that little spring, has come loose.  It is probably moving around as I corner and the ends of the lug nuts are scraping against it.

A few people were very keen to get home by dinner time, and one of our group had a flight to catch, so we had fewer and shorter breaks today to move along.   Everyone was keep to complete the full route then be home for dinner.

We continued north, through the outskirts of Canberra and then up through Gunning and Crookwell.   Crookwell was our lunch stop, at another Bakery.   The lamb pie was the best I’ve had all trip and the Vanilla slice was good, although a little too much icing for my liking.

The road from Crookwell up to Georges Plain was excellent, full of long sweeping curves, elevation changes and great scenery.   The only downside was that there were many caravans on the road, and a Nissan Patrol that couldn’t climb hills.   One of the guys is interested in buying a 280CE, so had a turn of the white car during this section and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was around here that the 380SEC started playing up more.   So far it had only given issues while idling.  However, on multiple occasions it cut out while at road speed.   Most of the time it would restart while coasting in neutral, but not always.  Luckily there was not much traffic on the road.

As we passed through Perthville, we saw a 450SLC for sale by the side of the road.   One of the guys went back to have a look it it, and it was in a sorry state.   Rust in the firewall, chassis rails, holes in the floor and more.   It was a D-Jet car and a sad way for an early 450SLC to go.    I suspect its destiny is a wrecking yard like the one we saw on Saturday.

After a good drive though to Lake Lyell, we all went our separate ways.   A couple of us refueled in Lithgow, and then took Bells Line of road back.   I hate the Great Western Highway with a passion, so Bells line was the obvious choice.  It was very foggy, but the traffic was light and it was a fairly relaxed cruise home the back way.

After I rolled into the garage, I checked my odometer and I had travelled 3,883km in 6 days.  My 450SLC is now almost at 318,000km.   I have a few things to attend to.   Obviously the noise from the wheel, whatever it is.   The A/C, and the starter motor has started playing up, not always engaging.

All the cars and drivers made it back home safely.

Overall, the trip was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a great break from work and we saw a lot of Australia I have never seen before.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 6: Bombala to Sydney appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

We started early in eastern Melbourne with some car repairs on the 500SL.   Even after tightening the hoses yesterday, it was still leaking power steering fluid.  We finally found out why.   The second generation cars had an additional spoiler at the front.   This had been attached with screws.  One of the screws was touching the cooler line for the power steering.  Every time the spoiler flexed over a bump, the screw would rub against the line.  After years of doing that, it had finally worn a hole.   The temporary solution was to cut a section of hose and cable tie it to the line to cover the ‘wound’.   This stanched the bleeding at least until the end of the trip.

The 380SEC continued to require a bypass for the fuel pump relay, but the owner of that car is getting his process down to get it restarted when needed.  It still does not like to idle for long periods of time, but runs very well when on the open road.   The bypass must have a lot of current going through it, as the connections are starting to melt a little.   It hadn’t blown the 25 amp fuse, but that has started to melt too.   This seems more current than I would expect a Bosch fuel pump to draw and may be part of the issue.

My car started out ok, but the wheel bearing noise became quite bad as we drove out of Melbourne.   So bad, that I phoned a friend in the MBCV to find contacts for mechanics in the Mornington Peninsula area.   At this point I was convinced I would have to leave the car in Melbourne.

However, being a Sydney car, the threat of staying in Melbourne for a few more weeks was enough to get the wheel bearing to quieten down, and so since It was behaving itself, we continued.  It seems to very much dislike city driving with turns and stop/start, but tolerate quite well cruising at 90km/h.

After we left Melbourne, we hugged the coast as we drove through Gippsland.  It was quite a windy and rainy day today, so there was quite a swell out on the ocean as we drove past.   The country was lush and green and there was a lot of cattle farming.

Our first stop was Inverloch where we sampled another local bakery called Slice of Heaven.   The pies were very good, and the Vanilla slice was the best I’ve sampled on the trip.   It was also Inverloch were I made the decision to keep going with the 450SLC.

Even in the rain the roads were quite good and we cruised along at a fairly leisurely pace.   Since I was trying to be gentle on my car, I returned the best fuel economy figures since I purchased it, all those years ago – 13.1 liters per 100kms.

Our next stop was Maffra, where we visited the Gippsland Vehicle Collection.   This is a nice museum with a rotating collection.   As of October 2024, they have 20th century sports cars on display.  I’ve covered the museum separately.

After the museum, we had lunch at the Maffra bakery.  We first looked at a fish and chip shop that was heavily advertised, but didn’t take our fancy.   The pies were excellent at the bakery, and the Vanilla slice was good too.

We kept going, as I was keen not to do the Monaro highway at night in the rain.

After Maffra, we continued to Orbost via Lakes Entrance.   Going through Orbost brought back memories of limping the green 280CE into town on the first of these trips a couple of years ago.   We continued to cruise along, the scenery quite good and the roads good to drive on in this weather.

After Orbost farmland started to give way to the National Park.   The road was quite wet so we had to slow down.    We were all getting quite tired by now, from our busy day yesterday.  A few of us got some snacks to re-energize, and there were a couple of power naps by the side of the road.   The countryside became more hilly, and densely forested with very large trees.  The road was windy, and It would be far more fun to drive on had the weather been good.   This is the second time I’ve driven this route in bad weather.   At least I had light this time.

We turned off at the Monaro highway, which climbs fairly steeply through dense forest.   Even in the wet it was a good road to drive on, and in the dry it would be a great driving road.   As we got closer to our destination in Bombala, the forest suddenly gave way open country and sheep farms.    We finally cruised into Bombala at around 6:15PM, right on time.   Originally, we had planned to fuel up ready for the morning, but the main service station was closed, and the other one only carried diesel.

We checked into the local pub where we are staying and went for dinner, which was quite good.   Tomorrow is the final day of our trip.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 5: Gippsland and Monaro Drive appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

Even though the total amount of driving was less than over days, we had a lot to cover.   We made out way out of Bendigo at 6AM.  Due to daylight savings kicking in, it was dark and we were all tired since our body clocks assumed it was 5AM.  We had a two hour drive to Euroa for the Australian National Show and Shine.

At this point we had intermittent rain driving through the mostly flat farming country between Bendigo and Euroa.   The drive was fairly relaxing as there was not much traffic and the roads were all pretty easy.    Along the way we noticed another grain Silo with artwork.   However, this one was more folksy vs the more artistic ones around Horsham.  It was quite a good contrast.

Generally al the cars were still performing well, with some minor exceptions.   The 380SEC was still playing up with hot starts and occasional stalling when idling.   We just kept it running during short breaks.   The 500SL had a power steering leak which seemed better after tightening up the clamp on the return hose.   And my A/C was no longer working in the 450SLC.  I guess there was a leak.   Given it was a cool day, I was only going to use the A/C to defrost the front window, so it wasn’t essential.

We refueled at Euroa before the show and then had our cars in place around 9AM.    Details about the show are covered separately.   We planned to leave the show at 11:30AM.   The MBCV had kindly offered to host us for a BBQ dinner at their very impressive Club rooms.   Given all the trouble they were going to, we didn’t want to be late, and I was keen to drive some roads that looked really promising on the way to Melbourne.

Leaving around this time worked pretty well, as we were able to see what we needed to see of the show.

Fitting the name of our trip, the route to Melbourne was not the direct one.  The map is below, but the goal was to find as many great driving roads as we could between here and Ferntree Gully.   The roads exceeded my expectations.

We headed out towards the serenity of Bonnie Doon.  The roads so far were fine, but not all that special.   it was when we got through Mansfield that they started to become really good.   The road I specifically wanted to do was the Eildon-Jaimeson Road.   This road is paved, but a lot of the roads around it are not.   I think I can safely saw it was one of the best roads I have driven on.   It was lots of windy roads up and down the mountains that goes on for 63km.   You can still drive well within the speed limit and have amazing fun on this road.

I kept my 450SLC back in 2nd gear most of the time and I was able to accelerate out of the bends and then slow down for each.   The car handled really well, it generally stayed flat and I never lost any grip.   I was more likely to slide out of the seat when cornering that lose control of the car.

In addition, the scenery was amazing and it was like driving through a temperate rain forest.   The sportier cars like the 107s and 124s were really able to make the most of this road.  It was probably harder work for the W108s.

As we drove we found a couple of scenic places to stop and allow us to all re-group.

After we finished this road, we still had more great driving roads.   We went through the Yarra Ranges National Park and went through Towns like Reefton and Gembrook.   These roads were equally good and probably more varied than the Eildon-Jaimeson Road.   There was still lots of bends, but also sweeping corners as well as the tight stuff.   In addition, there were also more significant uphill and downhill sections.

There was one section that we did up towards Nichol lookout that was like a Hill Climb.   And the view at the top was amazing.   There was also a section that went through what was presumably an old growth forest with massive trees on either side of the road.

Both roads were great and I would do them again in a heartbeat. Since my A/C wasn’t working, I had my windows and sunroof open. I could hear a noise from the rear right when turning left. I think I may have a wheel bearing starting to get noisy. If I hadn’t had the window open, I probably wouldn’t have heard it, so I am hoping it will be fine until I get to Sydney.

After we finished the twisty drive, we headed into the MBCV club rooms for the BBQ.   The MBCV had 30-40 members who had attended to come and meet with us and their hospitality was very much appreciated.   It was great to meet up with some friends in the club again, and see some of their cars and chat.   It was great to see cars like the W143 230, and the dinner was great too. The W143 is currently for sale and will be on display in the Sandersons showroom in Sydney soon.

By the time we got to our hotel which was about 20 minutes away, we were all pretty tired from such an action packed day. We covered around 510km today.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 4: Euroa show, great driving roads and MBCV BBQ appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

It was quite cold and wet as we rolled out of Horsham at 6AM.  For the first part of our drive, we were still in wheat country, but after a while the elevation started to rise and farmland gave way to dense foliage.   Kangaroos and Wallabies were everywhere, and we had to slow right down to ensure I didn’t damage a second car hitting a Kangaroo.

As we ascended into the Grampians, we encountered thick fog and rain, and the roads were windy with steep drop offs on either side.   We had to drive quite slowly due to the conditions. Our first destination was Lake Wartook, which is a man made reservoir at high altitude.   Even with all the fog it was quite an impressive view.

After Lake Wartook, we headed to MacKenzie Falls.  The falls are about 950 meters from the parking lot but due to the dense fog we didn’t walk the trail.  Some people returning told us that you couldn’t see much.   We also went to Reid lookout nearby, and there was nothing but fog from there either.

A drive down a very windy road took us into Halls Gap for breakfast.  The local birds were rather brazen and cockatoos made off with somebody’s apple slice and used somebody’s head as a perch.  Since the local bakery had won an award for their Vanilla Slice, I tried one.  It was pretty good, but I have preferred others.

After breakfast, we drove down the road to Lake Bellfield, where we managed to find a gap in the rain to have a look and take some photos.  It was at that point that the 380SEC, which had been struggling with hot starts, decided enough was enough and refused to start at all.

I had a multimeter in the boot and we soon established that the fuel pump was not getting power.   I had some spare wire, so we started to make a bypass for the fuel pump relay, but one of the guys had something far better.  He had a proper bypass with Mercedes-Benz pins and a fuse.   With the bypass installed, the 380SEC roared into life.

After lake Bellfield, we had a break in the rain, and the road between the lake and Dunkeld at the end of the National Park was really good.  Not only was it great to drive on, but there was some amazing scenery.  The rock escarpment was very impressive, but there wasn’t really a good place to stop to take some photos.

At this point our group split in two.   We planned to visit a Mercedes-Benz wrecker outside Ballarat.  Those of us who didn’t want as much time at the wrecker, split off to visit a metal working shop first.   The other half the group made a quick stop at a cafe outside Ballarat and then went to the wrecker to have a look around.

Driving though this part of Victoria it was very green and lush.   There was a combination of agriculture and sheep farms.   The crop became more and more likely to be canola as we progressed.   Throughout the day we had varying weather, from sunny breaks in the rain, to drizzle to torrential downpours.

At the wrecker, a few of us managed to grab a few useful things they were looking for.   The wrecker was currently in the process of moving premises so the only parts available was those that were already on the cars.   I managed to get a couple of W123 trim bits which was useful.   We got a second hand fuel pump relay for the 380SEC while we were there.

After our visit to the wrecker, the rest of our afternoon was spent driving the Goldfields Way to Bendigo.   You could see some of the impressive buildings from the gold rush still in the towns.   We even stopped to take photos of our cars at Clunes town hall in the rain.   Talbot was still a very small town with some impressive preserved buildings, whereas Maryborough is an interesting combination of turn of the last century banks and more modern buildings.

As well as the impressive public buildings paid for my the gold rush, the road was very good too.   Not quite as good as the road through the Grampians, but still very enjoyable to drive on. After taking the Goldfields way, we arrived at our hotel in Bendigo.  Since the car show is tomorrow, we washed out cars, despite the high likelihood of rain overnight.  They certainly look a lot better.

Throughout the afternoon, the 380SEC still suffered hot starting problems.   I’m not 100% on the cause, but its possible that the relay ais going at the same time as the fuel accumulator.  It totally conked out in the driveway of the hotel.  Wwe managed to get it started again, and washed for the show.   The 500SL had a minor problem with low power steering fluid, which was easily picked up.   My SLC used another litre of oil as compared to yesterday.    I’m a bit surprised given it used to drink a lot les before the the valve stem seals were replaced.

We then went to a nearby pizza place for dinner.   Even with the bad weather, the day was excellent.   Tomorrow is the actual show and it is not supposed to rain as much.   .

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 3: The Grampians, Goldfields Way and a wrecking yard appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

The morning greeted us with grey skies and steady rain.   It didn’t look good for our longest day behind the wheel.  A check of the rain radar showed the storm moving east and only scattered showers to the west of us, our direction of travel.

Sure enough, that proved to be the case.  The rain had largely finished by the time we hit our first stopping point in Echuca for breakfast.   We hit a local bakery, and I had an English Breakfast in a pie.  This mean a pie containing Egg, Bacon, Sausage and beans.   It worked much better than it sounds.

This area was very lush and fertile, and there was a combination of olive groves and livestock as we drove along.    The roads were mostly straight and we just cruised admiring the scenery and seeing occasional glimpses of the Murray River as it meandered along.   All the cars were running well, with only the 380SEC suffering from a minor hot start issue, likely a fuel accumulator.

From Echuca, we continued to follow the river, and left the main highway to take smaller roads that were far more interesting.   We stopped for a break tat Lake Charm, which was quite windy and then continued into Swan Hill to regroup.   At Swan Hill one of the guys produced a cake and some oranges which was a great way to take a break from the driving.

As we continued along the river from Swan Hill, the weather kept getting better, and the scenery continued to change.   The lush greenery gave way to red dirt and scrub.   The olive trees and sheep gave way to more and more wheat fields, as well as trees growing nuts.

This was part of the trip was a gentle cruise with minimal traffic and interesting scenery that was slowly changing.   Our lunch destination was Robinvale, where after driving over 400km we stopped at a Vietnamese take out store.   The owner was a real character and he also owns the local Chinese restaurant.    By the time we hit Robinvale the weather was really good, and it was quite hot at 27C.    We refueled the cars, and since the morning involved very relaxed cruising, I got 13.7l/100km which is about as good as it gets in an ADR 450SLC.

After Robinvale, we headed south towards the viewing Platform at Lake Tyrell.   The afternoon driving was quite different to the morning.   We were really in wheat country, with wheat as far as the eye could see.   The roads were empty and quite good, with lots of curves as they went around the various wheat fields.   The area was full of undulating hills, so the road had lots of ups and downs as well as the curves around the fields.    This was some of the best driving of the day.

We stopped for a break at Lake Tyrell and had a bit of a look around.   The scenery is quite good here, and it was well worth taking a short detour to see it.

The rest of the afternoon was planned to follow part of the Silo Art Trail.   The Silo Art Trail is a collection of 15 grain silos in the Wimmera and Mallee area.   It covers 700km, and you could probably spend two days doing the whole thing.   We didn’t do the whole Trail, but six of the silos that were generally on our way to Horsham, where we planned to finish for the day.

The first one we visited was the Sea Lake silo.  It has a vibrant mural of a little girl siting on a swing in a windswept area.   We stopped for a longer break here as this is one of the two we had identified as ideal for shooting some good photos of the cars with the silo in the background.

The next one was at Lascelles.  This wasn’t one of the Silos we had identified for a longer stop, but we ended up taking one anyway.  There was something eerie about this silo.  It was of a local Farmer and his wife.   The Farmer looked like had weathered a few too many droughts in his life, and the town of Lascelles mirrored this, looking rather down and out.

Next were short stops at Rosebery and Brim.   Brim was the one that kicked off the whole thing.   These were interesting, but not as vibrant as some of the others.  We only stopped for a few minutes. as we really wanted to get to Sheep Hills while the light was still good.   Sheep Hills looked like the most eye catching silo of the ones we were visiting, and it didn’t disappoint.    We arrived just as the sun was starting to get long and the vibrant mural looked great with our classics lined up.

It was generally about 30 minutes or so between each silo.  The roads meandered through the wheat fields, mostly along side the railway tracks.

We had originally planned to see Rupanyap, but we decided to skip it and see the final silo in the town of Horsham.   We almost didn’t bother going to look at this one, as it was getting dark.   I’m sure glad we did.   It rivaled Sheep Hills for visual impact.   It wasn’t just the silo that was painted, it was also ancillary buildings, for example one with a black cockatoo.

After our final Silo, we refueled and checked into our hotel in Horsham.   I checked my oil level, and like yesterday, I was at the low mark.  Even after adding a liter this morning.   I topped it off again, and as I shut the bonnet, all of a sudden one of my horns started to blow continuously.

It was rather loud in the parking lot of the hotel, and I quickly put on a head torch and got under the car to take a look.   Sure enough, my drivers side horn was blowing, but the passengers wasn’t.   This seemed to rule out the switch being the issue.   If I held the horn tightly, it at least stopped making noise.   While this solved the immediate problem, I couldn’t stay there all night.   Since I wasn’t able to let go, one of the other guys found my tool kit and extracted a screwdriver for me to remove the connections to that horn.   However, the horn was cowed by this display of tools and stopped blowing once I had the screwdriver in my hand.   This time I shut the bonnet less vigorously so as not to disturb the horn.

After this we adjourned to the local pub for dinner.  As with last night, the pub was very good. Amusingly, it provided the option to add a side of Chicken or Beef to the vegetarian meal. It had been another great day on our trip, and very different to the sort of driving we did yesterday.   This was my first time in this area of Australia and I enjoyed it.

The post The Long Way Euround – Day 2: Mallee region and Silo Art Trail appeared first on Classic Jalopy.

We started our road trip in Bathurst.  Trying to get out of Sydney on the first morning would have wasted hours.  The idea was everyone was to make their own way to Bathurst the night before as an unofficial Day 0.   I was the last to arrive and it was quite foggy and wet getting out of Sydney, which made the drive rather slow.

This morning, the weather was much better and our convoy of 10 Classic Mercedes rolled out of Bathurst at 6:30AM.  Our first destination was Young via the Olympic Highway, where we had a rather nice breakfast at a local Bakery.   On the way to Young, we passed through the towns of Blayney and Cowra.   The Terrain was mostly gentle rolling hills.   It has been quite a wet year this year, so the countryside was very green, and there was quite nice varieties of colour as we drove along.  All the cars were running well, and it was cool but not super cold.

From Young, we continued along the Olympic Highway to Cootamundra, where the terrain was similar.   At Cootamundra, we turned off the Olympic Highway and turned south towards Gundagai   The normal way to travel to Gundagai from here would be to head down to the M31 Hume Motorway and then head into Gundagai.   On this trip, we’re trying to avoid motorways, so we took a back road through Burra Creek.

The road through Burra creek was very narrow and windy, but it was a really good driving road with minimal traffic.   The weather was warming up and I think everyone enjoyed taking their cars on this back road.    From there, we arrived in Gundagai and lined the 10 cars up in front of the old Railway station.

From Gundagai, we headed south towards the outskirts of Tumut.   This road was also very good and had some great changes of elevation and some nice bends.   At Tumut, headed towards Tumbarumba.  This section overlapped with Day 2 of the Concours run from last year.   We filled up at Tumbarumba, and I had used around 55 liters in my 450SLC to cover 390km.  I thought this would be among the worst of the convoy – but I was wrong.   The 500SL managed to use 58l, the 380SEC was similar and the 280S and 280SE 3.5 W108s were closer to 60.   Meanwhile the W124s were the milage superstars with the 300CE only using 35 liters for the same distance.

From Tumbarumba, we left the road we used last year and headed west towards Jingellic.  The road here was similar to what we experienced from Gundagai to Tumut and it was an enjoyable drive.    From Jingellic, we crossed into Victoria and drove along the south side of the Murray River.   The Murray River road was a revelation.  We followed it for quite a long time, past Granya, along lake Hume until crossing back into NSW at Bethanga Bridge.

Driving this road was the highlight of the day, and I suspect will end up being one of the highlights of the trip.   The road follows the river, but is elevated, and the views are amazing.   The road is also great to drive on, twisting and turning with the river, some corners tight, some sweeping and huge fun at legal speeds.

I got rather enthusiastic with these corners in my 450SLC and managed to break both of my rear exhaust hangers.   Luckily, one of the other guys had some spare hose clamps which have become makeshift metal exhaust hangers.   So far they are working very well.    Along this road we also stopped at a couple of lookouts which had amazing views.

After we crossed the bridge, we had to pick our way through Albury.  We lost a couple of the cars in the convoy, which were funneled onto the M31.

The rest of of kept going towards Howlong, before heading back into Victoria for the final push to Cobram where we are staying.   This road was fairly flat and straight.  While it was interesting to see things like the olive groves along the way, there was no comparison to the Murray River Road.

We arrived in Cobram about 6:30PM, where we were reunited with two of our lost vehicles, the final one not arriving until about 7:45PM.   We refueled at the end of the day and I had used 15L per 100km, similar to my previous tank.   After checking into our hotel we had nice meal at a local pub.

We covered around 675 km today.   Losing three cars was not ideal, but we managed to find them in the end.   The roads were excellent, the cars all ran well and we all enjoyed our day.

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